And here is a small gift for our visitors, the ripped firmware BY01 of the drive (fixed to enable cross flashing/auto bitsetting and increased reading speeds for -/+R/RW media.

Users of LiteON SOHW-1213S (and relative OEM drives) may want to try the firmware that will transform their 1213S to a 1633S drive, enable 16X +R writing speed and 2.4X DL writing!!!

Note that first you should backup your firmware with LTNFlash (included at the RAR file) and afterwards flash with the SONY firmware, your drive will named as DRU-710A but of course you can go back with the backup firmware

I wouldn't suggest to upgrade to the LiteON 832S and relative OEM (DRU-700A) cause the new 1213S/1613S/1633S are using totally different chipsets, of course if you wish to try, AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Anyone not wishing to risk cross flashing, should expect to see these codes make an appearance SOON in the 1213S firmware, just as the other "same chipset" drives stay in reasonable sync - one report at CDfreaks has a REALLY sweet burn on crappy media - has the Liteon firmware finally reached respectability, and will this improvement manifest itself across the "3S" range - untill now, the poor relation compared to the much better evolved firmware on the "2S" based drives.

Just posting to share that there's something rather strange about the scanning consistency of this firmware, the results are very much worse at 8x scanning speeds compared to 4x and to earlier firmwares. The 3 following scans were done on the very same disk but note the firmware and speed settings.

You can set the reading speed at KProbe by simply selecting the desired speed, the tweak only enables up to 16X DVD±R reading.

We have said many times that reading at 4X and 8X with 1213S and generally with any LiteON drives produces totally different results. There isn't a correct or false scan, the drive simply reports what it measures internally...

Now at which reading speed you should read the discs or not, its your decision...

* Many people suggest the famous 4X CLV reading speed with 812S/832S drives. * We have found (and proved) that this combination much less error rates compared with previous LiteON series ,and in any case, doesn't seem to report scans similar to the ones that CATS (professional testing equipement) reported at some measured media. * Its known that two LiteON drives from the same series (812S/832S) cannot give identical scans, with the same media, at the same speeds!

This subject is probably one of the biggest mis-understood things, we try to clear up things by our own research, too bad others tend to suggest combinations that simply...are untested

They are consumer drives which can report errors, and not precision measuring equipment.

Two factors tend to come into play: 1. Reading IS more difficult at higher speeds, hence the increase at the end 2. Reporting may be more accurate at lower speeds - the 8x read has a lower PIF average, despite the peaks, and a PI plot which rises badly at the end.

Another issue is graph scaling, which makes comparison difficult.

What the two plots are saying to me, is that I'd expect a speed plot to dip towards the end.

You can set the reading speed at KProbe by simply selecting the desired speed, the tweak only enables up to 16X DVD±R reading.

We have said many times that reading at 4X and 8X with 1213S and generally with any LiteON drives produces totally different results. There isn't a correct or false scan, the drive simply reports what it measures internally...

Now at which reading speed you should read the discs or not, its your decision...

* Many people suggest the famous 4X CLV reading speed with 812S/832S drives. * We have found (and proved) that this combination much less error rates compared with previous LiteON series ,and in any case, doesn't seem to report scans similar to the ones that CATS (professional testing equipement) reported at some measured media. * Its known that two LiteON drives from the same series (812S/832S) cannot give identical scans, with the same media, at the same speeds!

This subject is probably one of the biggest mis-understood things, we try to clear up things by our own research, too bad others tend to suggest combinations that simply...are untested

But how does this explain the wildly differing error rates of the two scans at 8x? They are burned with the same media; I wouldn't expect such a big difference as they are right next to each other in the same spindle.

ORIGINAL: Zoomer But how does this explain the wildly differing error rates of the two scans at 8x? They are burned with the same media; I wouldn't expect such a big difference as they are right next to each other in the same spindle.

As i have mention before, the reading speed DOES affect the reported error rates, i think you done one scan at 4X and one scan at 8X with the same emdia, correct?

I have the Sony DW-D22A, 16x DL dvdrw, i think its the OEM of the 710a ? right? im not too sure myself I have been havin problems with this drive reading a DVD-r which was burnt quite a while ago, that dvd-r reads and plays fine on my laptop dvd combo drive though and all other drives that i have tried. Last night i have tried writing something to a dvd-r , verbatim 2x dvd-r's , it failed , this was done using Nero 6.3.1.10. Any ideas what is causing this? Do u think i should get the DRU 710a firmware and flash it because my firmware version is not showing BY01 , mine is showing BYS1 , but everything else is the same as the nero info tool screenshot in this page. My system specs are as follow